Well, the good thing about pulling a run and redoing it isn't just improving the run, it's about improving the comments that go with it.

With that in mind, let's get some things out of the way, stuff I neglected in the comments for the previous run or shoved into the level comments. First, acknowledgments to people: Scaryice, for finding a few things and assisting in making this run better. More on him in a minute. I also neglected thanking the SDA staff for doing what they do.

Now here are some general notes for the run. Some enemies are static, some are dynamic. The important enemies, the ones that affect play, are of course the dynamic enemies. Some dynamic enemies include bonedogs, dodos, octopi, skulls and alien gunners. Some enemies that are partially dynamic are bats after and when they pause, mummies when they hit a wall, hand and froppa (humanoid things spawning out of the water) spawning spots, mud men spawning locations. Those things, and boss luck, are what really drive whether a run will be successful or not.

NPC movement in towns aren't completely random, which is different from most games of this time period. NPCs that move will generally move in the direction they're facing, unless they would be going outside their movement area. They will never move to the space behind them, only turn around. This slightly affects how I go about talking to them and moving around them.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will now discuss the small bit of controversy this run has. Scaryice found out what causes the ending boss glitch that cuts off the two minutes of time from killing the end boss to losing control of the character. This run does not have that glitch even though the main reason why I pulled the last run was to get a run with the glitch. What activates the glitch is keeping Zoda from doing its spawn alien move. A player can control it for the most part by being near Zoda. Unfortunately, in the four to five seconds it takes from entering the room to getting to Zoda, Zoda indeed used the move and spewed two alien spawn.

The unfortunate thing about this is that I had no control over the glitch. The more I thought about it, however, the more convinced I became that the important time for this run is when Zoda is killed, not when you lose control of the character, so while this run will end up officially longer than a couple of my other attempts, quality wise, it's the best by far. It will be up to you, the viewer, to determine which time check is the most important.

Now, on to the individual chapters.

Chapter 1:

There's really only two spots that are dynamic at all, and even that's kind of pushing it. First is NPC luck. I only have to talk to the five NPCs I approach to open up the dungeon. Three move. The first one is before the chief and affects nothing, so that one doesn't count. The one by the chief's hut doesn't give me luck, nor does the one in the middle of town. Pretty common for that to happen.

The dungeon went slightly faster than normal. Same path, movements and attacks every time. The difference is hitting the right spots with the attacks and how bold I want to be with frame timing stuff. The second to last room can change a bit depending on when bats stop, and the boss can sometimes dance around or fail to shoot fire, ending many runs.

Chapter 2:

I could have done the overworld stuff fractions of a second faster.

In my previous run, I took damage on the first two walking fish. I decided to change this because I was tired of getting runs killed by octopi in the rooms ahead and taking damage is such a small time gain. However, I found that I could take damage on the snakes and occasionally slip past the bat near the baseball bat and hearts. That unfortunately doesn't happen in this run. I also pick up a heart on the second walking fish, letting me skip a fish later. The random octopi rooms go okay.

The Big Octopus does take a bit of time to get into range, unfortunately, costing me time. I can't control that very much.

Chapter 3:

I really like Chapter 3, probably my favorite chapter to play. I guess you can call 3-1 the random dungeon. Every room has random elements, or at least come across as so.

The first two dodo rooms go really well. Dodos don't go to the right wall in the first room, and the right dodo goes up in the second room. Can't ask for anything more.

The flying monkey rooms go fairly well, despite both of them starting out not so well. The middle monkey in the first room generally reverses course and gets in range more quickly than he does here, and it takes a bit of time for any monkey to get in range in the second room.

I get the bad snake room. I have not figured out when the snake comes down the second time and when it waits. I have to wait for it to move the third time. A minor loss.

The dodo/bonehead room goes fine. This pattern of movement had happened a few times, so I could expect it.

I have to pause slightly in the bat room to avoid a hit. No biggie.

Got lucky with NPC movement in Miracola. Gained almost a second.

My enthusiasm with 3-2 has ebbed since my last run. So much so I had to amend my boss strategy slightly to up the success rate. I decide to skip the hearts since I picked one up from an enemy in 3-1. I get hit by a mud golem which puts me at three hearts going into 3-3, which made me a bit wary.

I consider 3-3 a bottleneck of sorts since so many things can go wrong and kill runs.

The opening bonedog room wasn't the worst ever, but I never like when any of them heads to the right wall, much less two of them.

Next few rooms go really well, save the early jump after the doors open in a mummy room. I do good timing and get through the ghost room with no damage.

I can get hit in the single cannon room if I don't get my turns right. I do so and don't get hit.

The dark room is actually really easy. I think I died here once because I got hit by the bat I have to hesitate for and tried to speed through anyway.

The hands spawn nicely and in front of me. Makes me happy.

The second bonedog room goes almost ideal. Only would have been better if the top left one had gone down instead of right. No time wasted, though.

The next room goes great. I often have to move one more time in front of the door which takes a bit longer to kill off the mummies.

Final mage spawns twice in the same bad location. Only real lost time in this stage so far.

Mummy room goes really well. Hard to ask for better.

Final room before the boss is the first time I can say I was an idiot as far as room management. Should have gone after the skulls on the right instead of the one on the left. I lose a bit of time just one walking.

Maxie is a boss that may, deep down in its programming, have a pattern. It does some predictable things some of the time, but then it'll do something completely different. Fortunately, I am able to get it trapped on the left side. Taking a hit from the cannon allows it to run around a bit, which added a couple of seconds, but all in all, a fast Maxie fight.

Yeah, I nearly forgot to go talk to the head trainer in Shecola. Yes, that would have ended the run.

3-4 is short, but the last room can be troublesome due to the two octopi movement and not knowing where the fish will spawn. I do hesitate a bit, but I don't really lose time.

Wow! I get to do 3-5 with the shooting star? That's seemingly a rarity.

The top level area is just about doing the skull room properly with their random movement.

Lower level is froppa country. I've long since given up the thought of straight running through the long room without having to deal with one. Here, two spawn in the same spot, right in front of me. I have to take care of them and then move on. Fortunately, none jumped at me afterward.

Get good luck and the right mud golem spawn in the next room.

The forced froppa kill room is nice. I have to get the third one (sometimes only two are needed), but they spawn quickly, so no time is lost. Time actually is probably gained versus the average time to do this room.

The remaining eyes almost got me. Wave of dread hit me right before I escaped that room.

Get the bad minotaur turn, so I have to wait for it to get out of the way.

Rest of stage is uneventful.

With so much positive stuff with this stage, I get the best time I've ever done for Chapter 3. And it wasn't by a small amount. I had the best time ever through Chapter 3 by several seconds and I was about 10 seconds off my best time through Chapter 2. This chapter is a highlight of the run.

Chapter 4:

Next.

Chapter 5:

This chapter surprisingly competes with Chapter 4 for my least favorite chapter in the game. First off, the story arc for it is completely and utterly stupid. The expected route has you going back and forth. The main puzzle forces you to know your singing scales. A bird helps you more than an entire village. The ship can't be sunk any other way. The town is happy to let you sink the ship even though it's been there for 300+ years. It's a British ship but America the Beautiful is played as you sink it.

Add to that, the dungeon, while unique, is fairly bland to speed run. For me, it's a "get through" dungeon. Future runs will likely require manipulation of the bowling balls. I decline to do so here.

I do get hit by a bat at the first room. That one usually stops before it gets to where it hits me. No excuse, though. I should have avoided it.

Not much else to say here. I do have to dance around a couple of pirates, which may look kind of neat, but other than that, fairly uneventful. I guess except for trying to kill a couple of snakes with mirrors.

Chapter 6:

A lot of people like Chapter 6. And for good reason, it's a challenging chapter but not overbearing. Good length to the dungeons. Hard to say anything bad about 'em.

Getting there takes a bit of time, though. Still, I've only taken a bad route once on a try.

The first mummy room in 6-1 can be a bit tricky. I have to hesitate slightly after killing the first red mummy. Otherwise, the blue one on the left moves to the right and would hit me before I could kill the next red one. I decide to kill the mummy after the door is opened because it's risky to run one row below it and not get hit.

I shoot at the top right octopus several times because history has told me that some shots don't connect for reasons I'm still unaware of.

Mid boss goes down in two trips. Very nice.

Second part of the stage has me having issues with the select button. I hit it too early, and thus go to the Star instead of the Cleats. I then miss the nautilus looking thing on the bottom left and stupidly jump back to hit it once so I could use just three cleats on it. Should have just used the cleats. I'm never sure whether using cleats or the star on the mummies is faster. I use cleats this time.

The boss dances a bit and needs three passes to kill, but not too bad.

Only time you don't go straight at the beginning of a dungeon is 6-2.

How could I miss the rat?

I fully expected to get hit by the top rat. I luckily didn't.

I have to dance around the one knife. That knife usually doesn't appear there.

Doll goes down fast. Could be faster so that I don't jump expecting one more shot.

Picking up the second Splitting Stars here instead of later really seems to speed things up.

Rest of the stage goes really smoothly.

Even the two dolls and the twin statues go pretty much perfectly.

Actually have to pay attention to Dr. J/Dr. Jones/Uncle Steve's speech since I need to hit "No" halfway through.

Chapter 7:

Ah, you lovable 7-1, you. Actually, no. However, this is probably the fastest I've ever done 7-1. I mean, without a death beforehand. Aliens at the bottleneck act fairly nicely, leaving me enough health to take a hit from the jet riders with no problems. Boss battle is REALLY fast. Stage only took about a minute and a quarter.

Next stage isn't near as fast. I skip the hearts since my health is higher than I expect to be entering 7-2. However, in rushing through the first part, I have to kill the four turrets with the laser gun, which takes a bit longer than the nova.

The three alien gunner room with the random laser beam was as bad as it usually is. Those gunners never cooperate. They love being right to the corner of you and then moving in range on both sides, really taking it to you.

Mid boss goes splendidly.

I get way too many times by those pellet shots. Quite unlucky as often I can just go and not shoot at all and not get hit.

I get hit a few times on the boss as well. Slows down knocking the boss into the void as well as heart regeneration at the end of the chapter. I lose ten seconds or so due to those hits.

Chapter 8:

It isn't a Zoda head fight without me getting hit by an eyeball.

Four hands showed, so neither lucky nor unlucky.

Stage up to the core goes fine. Can't expect too much better.

Core goes perfectly. Alien goes off elsewhere. Two stars only. Great stuff, there.

All Zoda did was the alien spawn at the beginning. Bah!

Other than that, and shooting the wrong way once, Zoda does go down in a way that can be described as "pretty quickly." And I'm not just saying it this time to make it sound faster than it was like I was last time.

Then of course, since the glitch didn't appear, I have to finish it out.

Closing thoughts:

This game has so many rooms which can, either by luck or skill, go less than ideally. This run has so few of those instances. And the ones that do are generally pretty minor and add a minute (not the time measurement, the synonym of very small) amount of time. I'm amazed at how little griping I can do about this run, both in the luck and skill departments. My hope is that viewers will feel the same about this run and that, in the end, is why I'm submitting this one.